


please don't take this feeling

by crashing_meteors



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Avatar Yue (Avatar), F/F, Kyoshi Island, Yueki Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:33:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27932341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crashing_meteors/pseuds/crashing_meteors
Summary: Somehow, Suki gets stuck dealing with the weepy girl who washed up on Kyoshi Island a few weeks ago. It doesn't bother her nearly as much as it should.
Relationships: Suki/Yue (Avatar)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 60
Collections: yueki week 2020





	please don't take this feeling

“Suki, the water tribe girl is crying again.”

“That’s my problem because?” This is the fourth time this week someone has asked her to deal with the stranger that washed up on their shore. Suki wouldn’t mind helping, except for the fact that it usually turns into a two-hour lesson or crying session, and this one is doubtlessly going to be the latter.

“Because,” Hibiki says, drawing the word out while she rocks on her feet, “I maybe possibly accidentally made her cry more?”

“Hibiki, for the love of-“

“I’m sorry! I don’t do crying!” Hibiki interrupts, already tiptoeing away. “I just found her and felt bad! So I tried telling her about the island's history, but she started sobbing!”

Suki rubs the back of her neck as she listens to Hibiki chatter on defensively. She knows Hibiki means well, but if the girl could just solve one interpersonal issue without accidentally bullying someone for once, that’d be a huge weight off Suki’s shoulders.

“Where is she?” Suki asks at last, cutting off a rambling story about getting stuck in a tree as a child.

“The beach, watching the koi fish.”

“Did you tell her about the-“

“Of course I told her about the unagi, what do I look like, an idiot?”

Suki chooses the polite option, and doesn’t answer.

-

-

-

Blessedly, Imekanu is already at the beach, and notably out of uniform when Suki arrives. But the water tribe girl doesn’t seem to be crying anymore, so she doesn’t bother to mention the small transgression. It’s still early, practice isn’t for another hour or so.

“The important thing is that where you’re at is better than where you were, you know?” Imekanu is saying comfortingly. She would know, having arrived on the island as a little girl with her mother, both of them fleeing a violent home.

“I just can’t help feeling I’ve betrayed my people,” the stranger says mournfully, her soft, sweet voice barely above a whisper. 

“May I join you?” Suki asks the pair, and the girl nods. Imekanu meanwhile, looks startled to see her.

“Oh, I completely lost track of time,” her fellow warrior says in a panicked voice, taking in Suki’s uniform. 

“It’s my fault,” says the girl, “I distracted her-“

“Hey, hey, no big deal,” Suki says, hands up to stop the wide-eyed girls from spiraling. “You’ve got plenty of time, Imekanu. I just wanted to check on our visitor.”

The water tribe girl blushes a little while Imekanu breathes a sigh of relief.

“Will you be alright with Suki for a while?” she asks the stranger gently. “She doesn’t bite, I promise.”

“I know,” the girl says a little too quickly before blushing again. “I’ll be alright, thank you, Imekanu.”

The warrior runs off to get ready, and Suki takes a seat beside the stranger. The sun is just beginning to rise over Kyoshi Island, and Suki welcomes the warmth of its glow on her face. Winter is still a ways away, but summer is short-lived here. Still, their visitor seems unperturbed by the chill of dawn. The only thing Suki can recognize on her companion's face is sadness.

"Still regret leaving home?" Suki says after a long silence, disturbed only by the waves gently lapping at the shore. The girl beside her bows her head.

"I'm sure you're all tired of hearing about it-"

"I didn't say that," Suki says quickly, as a reflex, not wanting to set her off again. To Suki's immense surprise, the girl rolls her eyes.

"But it's true. I know it must be very tiring, dealing with me crying all the time. I'm tired of myself, sometimes," she says, a sheepish little smile lining her face. "I don't think I've said it, but I appreciate your patience."

"And your kindness," the water tribe girl adds, quietly and without looking at Suki, as though she's afraid to voice something so controversial aloud. Suki elects not to think too hard about the fact that she can't meet the girl's eyes either.

"I don't think threatening to throw you to the unagi the first we met qualifies as kind."

"I didn't say you were nice," the stranger clarifies, and there's the barest hint of sarcasm in her voice. "There's a difference."

Suki can't help it - she nudges the water tribe girl with her elbow. It lands a little too hard, knocking her off-balance, but the stranger just laughs. It's as pretty a sound as Suki's ever heard. They sit quietly again, longer this time, the sun rising high over the ocean. The water continues its slow roll inward, and the light reflects off of it just so, almost as though the sunbeams are floating right onto the sand. Distantly, Suki realizes that she really ought to be heading inland for practice.

They can start a little late, today.

"Did Avatar Kyoshi really found this island?" the stranger asks suddenly, and her warm eyes are trained on Suki so intensely that Suki's breath hitches.

"Yes, um, yeah," Suki stutters. Collecting herself, she continues, "She grew up in Yokoya, and separated the island from the mainland of the Earth Kingdom to protect the town from Chin the Conqueror and his armies."

"She must have been an amazing woman," the stranger says wistfully, still gazing at Suki, sounding as though she's somewhere else entirely.

"She was," Suki agrees, and she suddenly finds herself grateful for the thick layer of makeup she applied this morning when a warmth spreads up her neck and into her cheeks.

"Are you ever afraid you'll disappoint her?" asks the girl, and Suki is almost thrown off-guard by the question - except the answer comes as naturally as breathing.

"Avatar Kyoshi - she came from nothing and worked for everything she had," Suki says so quickly it almost comes out stuttered. "The Kyoshi Warriors were first created to teach women to protect themselves, and then we chose to honor Avatar Kyoshi by protecting our home. So long as I serve her home and what she stood for, I can never let her down."

The stranger looks away at last, staring out at the ocean. Then, almost as if she's afraid to do so, the northern girl lifts her arm, uncurls her fist, and bends a stream of water towards them. It's a sight to behold - Suki's never seen waterbending before, and certainly had no idea that Kyoshi Island's latest resident is a waterbender.

"Hold out your hands," the girl says, and Suki does, cupping her gloved palms together to form a small bowl. The bender focuses hard on the water, purifying so that the silt falls to the ground, and then sends it cascading gently down. Suki marvels at the feat a moment longer, before taking a drink from the liquid in her hands.

"I didn't know," Suki says breathlessly, wiping her mouth. The girl sighs miserably.

"I can do more than that," she admits, picking up a nearby rock. Effortlessly, she molds the rock in her hand - forming first a star, then a perfect circle, and then a heart. Suki can't even bother to consider the ramifications of the stone's newly-created shape as the girl passes it over to her, she's too shocked by the revelation to think anything at all.

"You're..."

"Yes," says the northern girl. "It's why I left home - my father, he...he never would have permitted it."

"Permitted what?" Suki asks, still absolutely awestruck as she turns the heart-shaped rock over in her hands. "Permitted you to be the avatar? You can't exactly help that."

The girl laughs, but it's nothing like before - she sounds bitter.

"You don't know my tribe," is all she says, and, frankly, based off of the limited information she's been given, Suki doesn't really want to.

"You were brave to leave," Suki says after a few moments. Sneakily, she pockets the rock in her uniform. "But now you have to be brave again."

Suki stands, and the girl follows suit. Warrior training is going to start incredibly late this morning, but Suki's fairly certain the girls will forgive her.

"I don't even know what to do," the girl - no, the avatar, says, although she follows the brisk pace Suki sets without hesitation. "I know I have to master the elements, but I've only mastered waterbending - or at least I think I have. I kind of had to teach myself..."

"We'll go to the mainland," Suki says confidently. It's a lot, to ask her fellow warriors to enter the war all of a sudden, but isn't this exactly what they're meant to do? "We'll find you an earthbending teacher. Omashu, maybe. Firebending will be harder, and airbending will be almost impossible, but maybe if we can get King Bumi's help-"

"We?" the girl repeats. Suki stops suddenly, turning on her heel to regard the stranger, and the two of them nearly collide. Suki definitely doesn't think about how they're exactly the same height, or how if she leaned over right now -

"The Kyoshi Warriors exist because of Avatar Kyoshi, it's our duty to honor and serve the avatar," Suki explains, electing to reach a hand out and place it on the girl's shoulder instead of her other idea. "That duty is more important now than ever, Avatar."

For a moment, Suki is certain the girl is going to cry again. Instead, she leans forward and presses a kiss to Suki's pale cheek.

"Thank you, thank you!" she exclaims, reaching out to hold one of Suki's hands in her own. Suki's mouth forgets how to form words. The avatar drops Suki's hands all at once, blushing deeply.

"And, um...you can call me Yue," the girl says, playing idly with her hair.

"Yue," Suki repeats, still reeling from the warmth of soft lips on her skin. "That's a beautiful name."

**Author's Note:**

> Hibiki, with the scripts 響, is a Japanese name meaning "sound, echo". She's meant to be one of the Kyoshi Warriors we see in the show - I have a lot of feelings about her, but mostly you just need to know that she's Suki's cousin. Imekanu, with the scripts イメカヌ, is the name of an Ainu poet and historian. Imekanu is supposed to be another Kyoshi Warrior we see in the show, and her name comes from my personal belief that she's sort of the unofficial historian of Kyoshi Island.
> 
> I wrote this for Yueki Week Day 7 - free day, because I really wanted to play with the idea of Yue being the avatar and the Kyoshi Warriors serving as her protectors. I probably would've published this on bodyguard day or Kyoshi Island day, but I was a little late. I hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Title comes from Alabama Shakes "This Feeling".


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